posted at 6:28 pm on May 31, 2011 by Allahpundit

Via Breitbart, another bizarrely low-key reaction to what was, of course, an alleged crime, possibly motivated by espionage, committed against a sitting member of Congress. If you need to catch up quickly on this story, spend a few minutes with Bryan Preston’s rundown at PJM, Jonah Goldberg’s gloss at the Corner, and Peter Ingemi’s list of convenient “coincidences” in Weiner’s story. Here’s all you really need to know: If Weiner’s version of what happened is true, then the story’s actually a bigger deal than if it happened the way we think. If some hacker’s tooling around surreptitiously in his Twitter account, then he’d have access to all of Weiner’s “direct messages,” i.e. private communications, with other Twitter users. Hopefully Weiner’s not so stupid that he’d send sensitive government information via a DM, but maybe he is — and even if he isn’t, other members of Congress might be and they’re potential targets too. Alternately, if the left’s pet theory that this is some sort of deep deep right-wing undercover operation to embarrass Weiner is true, then the culprit deserves to be richly punished for what he/she has done. At a minimum, this guy’s marriage could be jeopardized by framing him this way; worse, now that the story’s caught on in the media, it’s bound to affect his prospects for running for mayor of NYC, which he’s been thinking about for awhile. Long story short, there’s no earthly reason for police not to investigate this, even if Weiner himself thinks it’s no big deal. It is a big deal — objectively, beyond argument, regardless of which side you’re on. How come Weiner seems to be the only person who doesn’t think so, such that as of this afternoon no criminal case had been initiated yet? If he thinks this is such a distraction from The Real Issues, isn’t the fastest way to get past it to punt it over to the cops and let them confirm that the hacking happened? And yes, those are rhetorical questions.

I’m actually surprised that he hasn’t yet settled on Tom Maguire’s theory for how this will all play out:

My Bold Prediction for where this is headed – Congressman Weiner won’t be filing a police report. One might think that hacking a Congressman’s account to smear him and sexualy harass his Twitter followers is a big deal, but it’s not like he is the governor of Alaska or anything. After a bit of scrambling Weiner will explain the absence of law enforcement by offering up a brother or cousin or college roommate who will claim to have crept onto the account and played this prank simply because Weiner jokes never get old. Har de har.

Bingo. Tomorrow or maybe Thursday, we’ll be told that Weiner knew who the hacker was all along, just an old frat brother who thought he’d play a rib-ticklin’ little gag on his old pal which (tee hee!) could actually have destroyed his otherwise promising political career. That’s something buddies do to each other all the time, you know — ruin each other’s marriages by illegally hacking into each other’s accounts and making it look like they’re sending crotch shots to 21-year-olds. If/when that spin finally hits the fan, remember that Maguire had it first.

One lingering question which gives me pause: Wasn’t the photo posted to Twitter via Weiner’s Yfrog account? If so — and I may sincerely be wrong about this — aren’t all photos on Yfrog publicly viewable, even if sent via “direct message”? That is to say, you could click over to Yfrog, search for Weiner’s account, and see every photo on there, even if he intended the pic to be viewed privately. If I’m right about that (and maybe I’m not), then the “Weiner sent the pic” theory requires you to believe that AW didn’t realize that and actually took the extreme risk of sending a compromising photo via a photo account he wasn’t sure was secure. That’s not impossible — the “Weiner sent the pic” theory already imagines him taking an extreme risk by DMing someone a racy pic from his congressional account — but I never figured him for being that stupid.

Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns is demanding an investigation into cybersecurity issues raised by #Weinergate, saying it is vital to “ensure our national security.”…

“Although this particular incident is a matter for law enforcement, it clearly indicates that hacking is a serious problem and as Chairman it would be appropriate for the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to examine the issue of cybersecurity to protect our privacy and to ensure our national security,” Stearns said in an email to The Daily Caller.

Stearns is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a committee on which Weiner sits.

Update: Via Mediaite, full credit to CNN. They’re all over this. Make sure to watch to the end, where Dana Bash notes that the police still aren’t investigating — which almost certainly means Weiner hasn’t asked them to.

As a dedicated Twitter user myself, the most likely scenario is that Weiner himself mistakenly DM’ed (direct-messaged) the “prank” photo to the young woman in Seattle and intended it to be private. It takes just one wrong keystroke for a private DM to appear in one’s public timeline. (Allah wonders if Weiner would be so stupid as to post the photo through publicly-viewed Yfrog, but as we’ve seen from the recent bipartisan parade of — pardon my language — political wankers from Ensign and Edwards to Sanford, etc, etc, etc — politicians do supremely stupid things when they think with the wrong organ.

A second, but less likely, scenario is that someone with permission to post on Weiner’s account (most politicians have staffers who know the password to their bosses’ official Twitter accounts) tweeted the photo.

That spin would be even more convenient than Maguire’s; all he needs to do is convince some poor intern to take the fall. The one hitch is that Weiner’s “voice” shines through in his tweets; his account isn’t the usual boring congressional account where bland talking points get posted every few hours. It’s conversational, which creates the distinct impression that it really is him tweeting and not a staffer. (That’s one of the reasons so many people on Twitter follow him.) In fact, the NYT had a story about his Twitter habit just this morning in which it noted that “his Twitter personality is all him.” None of which is to say that it couldn’t have been an employee, just that it would be odd for a staffer to be messing around with his boss’s otherwise very personal account and doubly odd for him to be using it for something so risque.

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Makes bogus claim due to the shame, claims no need for authorities, makes a statement hes thinking of getting a lawyer, to conclude its all good while not pressing forward…

Exactly the opposite of what any sane hacking victim would do. I had someone hack my work email, within 2 hours – I had the GBI meet with me face to face to personally collect ISS logs to find the culprit…

Of course my design agency at the time was far more important than a US Congressman/s

If I’m right about that (and maybe I’m not), then the “Weiner sent the pic” theory requires you to believe that AW didn’t realize that and actually took the extreme risk of sending a compromising photo via a photo account he wasn’t sure was secure. That’s not impossible — the “Weiner sent the pic” theory already imagines him taking an extreme risk by DMing someone a racy pic from his congressional account — but I never figured him for being that stupid.

You are asking for logical thought regarding something that is based on everything but logic.

Why would a guy like DSK who can afford a $4,000 room assault a maid rather than hire a hooker?

Why would Arnold sleep with a not terrible good looking employee when he could cheat with someone much better looking.

Does anyone have a run down of how many stories ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX did when Rep. Chris Lee sent a pic of himself shirtless? I seem to remember this being a major story that all the networks reported on. Why the silence now?

Wow, I bet when he claimed his account was hacked, he didn’t think through to the fact that this alibi could blow up in his face because it IS a national security issue if our public servants are being hacked. The fact he hasn’t asked for an investigation removes doubt in my mind as to WHO send that picture. What a TWIT!!!!!!!!

By the way, I rarely use twitter. I didn’t even know there is a difference between private and public messages. I wonder how many others are like me?

WOW – did anyone else notice his body language when she first asked the question? Shifting his weight from side to side; looking back and forth – not exactly what you’d expect from someone that had nothing to hide – and given what I’ve seen from him in the past, very un-Weineresque. He knows that the hammer is about to drop and ruin his life. These guys are such idiots.

Arrogant pr*ck. This guy’s arrogance and non-responsiveness is worse than anything I’ve seen in a long time. Not conceivable he’d have survived this long if he were a Republican. Not possible. The double standard is beyond belief. The CNN reporter even lays on a bunch of as*-kissing before she can ask the hard questions.

If Weiner just confessed at the beginning and said he meant to send it to his wife, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. Making up a cover story is doing him in. It’s always the cover up that gets you in trouble. Heck, he should have just admitted to a moment of weakness or drunken stupidity and said sorry.

Ya know, after thinking long and hard (sorry) about this, and after giving Weiner a bit of the benefit of the doubt, he is guilty as sin.

Not only can you just tell by his body language and repetitive talking point arguments as to why he’s not interested in discussing it, he’s exactly the type of liberal politician that would LOVE to warrantlessly blame a GOP/conservative operative for this. He would jump at the chance to have this investigated.

As said, and good punnage aside, this really is no laughing matter when a congressman’s computer gets hacked. No matter what the hack was for, it was hacked…could happen to any of ‘em, and any congressman would want to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else.

Weiner is busted. And yes…kudos to CNN for pushing the congressman and to keep pressing this issue with him.

Not only can you just tell by his body language and repetitive talking point arguments as to why he’s not interested in discussing it, he’s exactly the type of liberal politician that would LOVE to warrantlessly blame a GOP/conservative operative for this. He would jump at the chance to have this investigated.

JetBoy on May 31, 2011 at 6:57 PM

Which is why I’m glad this is being pursued.

Because let me tell you, I could not care less if he’s banging some college girl on the side. I figure that a great number of politicians have had affairs in their lifetime. It’s sleazy but it’s become so commonplace that it pratically doesn’t matter at this point (unless they’re hypocritically a champion of ‘family values’).

But if this was a Republican, the media would have ALREADY called for them to resign, and would have been covering this almost nonstop for the past several days. So what’s good for the goose is etc.

other members of Congress might be and they’re potential targets too. Alternately, if the left’s pet theory that this is some sort of deep deep right-wing undercover operation to embarrass Weiner is true,

Those two sentence fragments are everything that the sysadmins in congress-land need to know — if Mr. Weiner is truthful about the hack. That an opponent (or worse, a national enemy) can steal your identity and private information is enough to give any congresscritter pause in using these systems.